Starting Preliminary Work on the Front Pasture

The other day, we started pulling willows out of the front pasture...it will be a long hard job to get it done.

But, we've been putting it off in favour of the other million things that all need to be done around here.

There's only certain times of the year we can get down there easily and pull willows easily....as it was, we were about a week late. The danger up here, is if it is too dry, we could set the whole dang Valley on fire....and somehow, we don't think that would win us any friends!

Here's the front pasture in summer....see all the willows?

We're working on the right hand side for now....eventually we want to get it back to pasture in that one area.

See the difference? Well, maybe you can't....but we can!

Oh, please disregard that white stuff....I have no idea what that is...I am in total Denial!

Lit a fire, and started tossing willows on there. The Gman used his chain saw on them. He was using his big machine, but it tends to leave a bunch of deep holes, so we thought we'd try this.....likely, we'll have to get down there again next year and trim the willows we cut this year...damn things, sending up new shoots all the time!

Later on, once we had coals, we pulled out the chairs and roasted hot dogs!

Today, it's chemo day, if the blood work came back lookin' good.....round 3!

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Hats, Hats, Hats

Thought I would put up some pics of new hats we got! My Mom made me this one.....

Lots of cables knitted.....I Love the colour too!

One of our Valley friends loves to sew with fleece. She made this camo one for the Gman.....

and this one for me. We thought that was a really nice thing for her to do!

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Zuccini Butter

Another recipe I got from Homesteading Today earlier this season....we were inundated with zuccini all summer. Of course, that is our own fault, as we always want to grow lots for the pigs and hens.

I think all livestock love zuccini.....anyway, I would take the odd one, grate it up, toss it in the freezer in 2 cup baggies.

Then I read this recipe and thought it sounded pretty good:

Zucchini (apple) Butter

Peel, seed and grate 12 cups zucchini. Put in large crockpot with 3/4 c. lemon juice, 6 c. sugar, l T. cinnamon and 1/8 t. ground cloves.

Stir well, set on high, cover and forget about it over night. Stir well next morning.

EDIT: I turned the crockpot down to Low for overnight, then gave it a good stir in the morning and turned it back on High.

Use a potato masher to mash it down. Stir again. Continue cooking until it reaches the consistency you want.

Put in jars and waterbath for 15 minutes.This makes the most beautiful brown butter and nobody has a clue that there are no apples in it!!

It has a really dark colour when it is ready for processing! We liked it....and it wasn't long till we started thinking of other ways to use it. Maybe we will try it on top of barbequed chicken.

(Note to Self: Don't be a Lazy Butt! See what happens when you don't use the canning funnel......)

So today I got it all canned up. Ended up with 3 half pints and 9 little half of a half-pints (what's the proper name for that, someone out there has to know!)

After I got that done, I canned up the Pizza Sauce! 14 half-pints and 6 pint jars of Pizza Sauce now sitting on the counter!

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Pizza Sauce

I took the last batch of tomatoes out of the freezer and am going to make Pizza Sauce out of them!

We heated up the 'maters and once warm and soft, mashed them. Then we ran them thru the food mill....put all the pureed sauce back on the stove.

And there it has sat....I think it's been 3 days now. I just left it on Low all the time, and we'd stir it each time we walked by and remembered it was on there.

Here's what it looked like last night....thick enuf that the wooden spoon stands up own its own!

You can see from the sides of the pot that the sauce has reduced quite a bit.

The recipe: (which I got from Homesteading Today) The "I" below is the poster who gave out the recipe.

pureed tomatoes (about 6 – 7 pounds)

2 large finely minced onions

4 minced garlic cloves

3 TB olive oil

2 TB lemon juice

1 teaspoon cracked pepper

1 TB sugar

2 TB fresh chopped parsley

1 TB dry oregano or 3 TB fresh

1 TB dry basil or 3 fresh

1 tsp celery seed

2 tsp salt

You want to mix all this together and cook until it decreases by half. I put mine in a roaster and bake it in the oven overnight at about 200 degrees.

To make it "super spicy" (how I like it,) just DOUBLE all the spices not the salt and sugar though.Substitute brown sugar or honey for white, for a different taste. You can cook a bay leaf in with it too. Also try some sweet red peppers finely chopped.

Process in a water bath canner 25 minutes for pints. Start timing after the water starts boiling. Makes about 5 pints.

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'Lunatic' Single-Handedly Takes on the US Ag System

A diehard activist for some, a pioneer for others, Joel Salatin is fighting against America's genetically-modified foods and for local subsistence farming.

October 18, 2009 By Virginie Montet and Caroline Groussain UK Telegraph

Leading his crusade from the heart of the Shenandoah Valley in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, this anti-globalization messenger who dubs himself a "Christian Libertarian environmentalist capitalist lunatic farmer" has become the face of healthy eating and agriculture.

"The desire from consumers to eat this kind of food is exploding," Salatin said at his 500-acre (200-hectare) farm in Swoope, Virginia.

Small farmers' markets -- still scarce just a few years ago -- are now in full swing in the United States. The online Farmers' Market Directory lists 5,274 markets across the country, a 13 percent rise from 4,685 a year ago. The number has grown by nearly 4,000 nationwide since 1994.

"Nobody trusts the industrial food system to give them good food," said Salatin, surrounded by the many cows, pigs, turkeys, rabbits and chickens he raises in methods that remain unconventional in the highly-industrialized US agricultural sector.

"The distrust is very real."

An iconoclast who has authored several books with titles like "Everything I Want to Do is Illegal," Salatin makes regular media appearances and now spends a third of his time at conferences.

But farming is still a family affair built over three generations on the rocky terrain of his "Polyface Farm".

Chickens and turkeys run free here, transported in a chicken coop built on wheels to a different pasture every three days. The 1,000 cows and 700 pigs raised for meat each year change pastures every week.

Salatin, 53, hails his "healing farming" method, where each animal plays an environmental role. "The cows shorten the grass and the chicken eat the fly larvae and sanitize the pastures. This is a symbiotic relation," he explained. This natural approach to farming is just as profitable as industrial farming, Salatin insists, because he saves where big chicken and beef producers are forced to invest in structures, drugs and labor.

His customers are 400 families, about 50 restaurants and a dozen shops in the area. He also charges 800 dollars for a two-hour tour of his farm. "Yes, the prices are higher, but it's because all of the costs are in the price of this chicken and you are paying it here at the cash register, not paying it in sickness and disease and pollution and stink," he explained.

But his unorthodox methods leave some thinking Salatin is a "terrorist", he claimed, "because the new word is science-based agriculture and this is not science-based."

Salatin's products are not certified as organic -- a booming food sector in the United States, now accounting for 3.5 percent of all food sales -- because he refuses to do the necessary inspections and paperwork. "We are beyond organic," exclaimed Salatin, observing that government-certified organic meat products do not necessarily come from chicken and cows on pasture. "Organic doesn't mean what people think it means."

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/joel-salatin-americas-farming-heavyweight-1805086.html

To learn more about Joel Salatin and his Polyface Farm, click on the link on right hand side of this blog..... Sphere: Related Content

Heirloom Tomatoes

A friend was here for a visit today and brought this beautiful basket of heirloom tomatoes that she got from another friend.....they're gorgeous!

And since they are heirloom, we'll save seed from each of them. We can try to grow them next year....there are at least 4 different kinds in the basket...also some tomatillos and a couple of sweet peppers.

And...I sorted thru my paper bags of our homegrown Amish Paste and Romas...got quite a few ripe ones! So got them washed and cut up and tossed them in the freezer. We're now down to 1 paper bag full of 'maters left to ripen.

I got a card from a good high school friend...I got a chuckle from it! Grrrrrrrr

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Our Friend Bill and Hemochromatosis

We lost a good friend Saturday morning.....our friend Bill Brinnen passed away. We will miss him.

I was talking with his wife, a dear friend of ours and asked for her permission to write about Bill and his difficulties with Hemochromatosis. She readily agreed, in hopes that a bit more awareness can be raised with regards to this awful disease.

Have you ever even heard of Hemochromatosis? I know we hadn't, we had no clue what it was. Go on over to toomuchiron to find out more. It's a very common, yet virtually unknown genetic disorder.

Bill talked about his struggle with the Canadian Hemochromatosis Society, and in order to build awareness, he agreed to be interviewed for their Fall 2009 Newsletter. I admire his honesty and determination to help bring this disorder to the forefront.

Bill worked in BC Forestry during his career, spending years in the Northern part of our Province. Later he retired to Vancouver Island, where he met and wed his wonderful wife, Glenna. Together, they spent time travelling thru BC and parts of the US.

Bill spent a lot of spare time working with his woodworking tools, making beautiful rocking horses for each of his grandchildren. I know they will cherish these treasures from their Grandpa and hand them down to their own children one day.

We'll miss you Bill...you were a hell of a guy! I'll just bet you're fishing right now...tight lines, good buddy.

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Garden Pictures

We got a few more things done outside. The main veggie garden is now empty, except for two rows of kale. It's not all weeded, but it IS empty!

The asparagus is still holding on....the frosts are not bothering it at all!

Down the Valley......

Some of the hens in the main veggie garden.....hanging out between the fall rye and the kale....

A very Happy Hen running under the Radish that's gone to seed....

Broccoli gone to seed (top)

Radish (bottom).....

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Dangggggg.....It's Coldddddd

It's freezing and then some out there! This is what we woke up to this morning.....-12C when we first got up! The ole Arctic front again.....

Friday the Gman got the first 2 pigs ready to go off to the butcher....we dropped them off yesterday.

Came home, and canned up the trimmings for da Wolf. We did these jars last night and we have one more load to go. At least da Wolf won't starve this Winter!

I'm feeling ok...getting tired tho. That's bound to happen on the third day, so they tell me. The last 2 days I was able to get out and get some garden work done. We still have at least 1 long row of potatoes to dig up.....they'll just get put on the woodstove right away for the pigs. The potatoes were Frozen yesterday, when I dug them up!

We also went over and got the poop trailer again. The Gman used his excavator to dump the trailer onto the Main Veggie Garden....who knows, tho, when it will warm up enuf to spread it out over the gardens?

This morning, I am going to go over to the neighbour's for coffee...yeah! I get to go out! Next week I won't be able to, as I'll be in the middle of my chemo cycle, but today I can still get out and see people.

Too bad we're not with my boys for Thanksgiving.....too far to travel when I am not at my best. But they are with my parents for the Holiday, so at least they are getting some turkey!

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'Maters, 'Taters and Hats

Appointment yesterday went well....felt so good when we got home, I got a few things done. Lots to do still around here and best to get something done while I can.

Checked again on the 'maters in the paper bags.....took out all the nice ripe ones. Found a few more with frost damage on them (foreground), and set them aside for the pigs.

We could maybe cut away the portions damaged by frost and freeze the rest of the mater but I'm not sure....I'll need to look into that - does anyone know if that is ok to do?

Put the rest back in the paper bags, with a thin layer of newspaper on top, making sure I added quite a few fairly ripe tomatoes to each bag.

I'm going to try to get out later this morning once it warms up and keep on digging potatoes....I think we're down to digging the last 7 rows. Gotta get the job done and move onto something else!

Rockin' the Cassock.....nice toasty warm little hat, made of fleece...keeps the dome warmer!!

-6C here this morning at 8am....we are hoping it doesn't snow soon. It is Way Tooo early for snow!

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Cleaning out the Cold Room

Today I went in for bloodwork, and my results were good, according to the doctor....so tomorrow I have my second round of chemo. We're very grateful that I can get my treatment at the hospital in 100 Mile House, as it will save us many hours of drive time.

After the blood tests, we took a quick trip to The Puddle, a larger city a couple of hours away. We did some stocking up, stopped and visited with friends, and headed home.

So tonight, the Hockey Game is on. Vancouver Canucks against Montreal Canadiens. Right now, it's 6 - 1 for Vancouver, yeahhhhh! It would be nice to see them have some more consistency in their playing.....oh, never mind, it's now 7 - 1, Alex Burrows just scored!!!

In between periods, we've been going down to start cleaning out the Cold Room, a job that should have been done months ago.....such is life on the homestead! It's really more of a tidy up that has been needed.....sweeping up the dirt that falls out of the bags of potatoes, rearranging jars of canning, that kind of thing.

And...here's why we finally got the Cold Room cleaned....we need someplace to put all these taters! They are all still sitting in the kitchen, waiting patiently. And it's OK they have stayed there.....I like to keep them in a warmer place than the Cold Room for a bit, once they come up from the Garden. Not a Warm Place....just warmer than it is downstairs....helps I think a bit with curing them.

Now that things are tidier downstairs, we'll start moving them down tomorrow....

Taters

Taters Everywhere!

When cleaning up down there, I again came across one of our big containers of Canola Oil.

We buy it in bulk (16 litres), as it is a lot cheaper. I just fill up our 4 litre container that I keep in the Pantry in the kitchen.

Guess I can put these dried Peas away now too.....

I think I may have put a pic of this garlic "braid" up already, not sure. This here is a Hillbilly Garlic Braid...no actual braiding involved and it's all held together with baling twine. HA!

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Putting the Main Garden to Bed

I should have titled it TRYING Desperately to put the main garden to bed! Cuz there aren't enough hours in our days and not enough energy from me to get the job done.

We picked up a trailerload of horse biscuits the other day from our friends.....the Gman took a section of the garden fence apart and used his machine to lift the trailer into the garden and dump it. Nice - it made the job quite a bit easier!

We gave the cabbage bed a quick hoeing, then I broadcast fall rye on the area. Then we got a really nice thick layer spread out on the cabbage bed.

The cabbages had all been pulled, trimmed of outer leaves and stored in the cold room downstairs. There were a few that little slugs got at, and we are feeding those off to the pigs. So that part of the garden = all done!

Turned my attention to trying to keep digging up potatoes. If I can get out there around mid morning, it has warmed up a bit and the sun is out (altho it's getting pretty cool!). I can then just leave the taters out in the air to dry them a bit, and make it easier to knock the soil off. I think these are Russets in the pic (took this pic a few days ago)

When the afternoon starts coming to an end and the sun just begins to go down, I bring my paper bags down and continue sorting the taters down in the field. No use handling each damn potato anymore than I have to.....sort them into bags for seed or for eating, then bring them up to the house.

I Never Ever leave potatoes out in the garden overnight...wayy too risky that it will get too cold for them. So, I try to do just a couple rows everyday and sooner or later, the job gets done.

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WARNING - Severe Baldness Alert

It's quite fitting that we post these pictures today on the blog - Today is the Run for the Cure for Breast Cancer Research.....I called my boys this morning to make sure it was OK with them if I went ahead and put these pics up.

I could hear all this commotion in the background when I talked to the Nman....I said where are you? He said, Mama, I'm downtown (Vancouver). I asked him what he was doing downtown. He told me he and Kgal are volunteering today at the Run for the Cure! How cool is that...thank you to both of you!!

I think reader Julia is running today in Kelowna for the Cure as well. Thank YOU!

Well....it is done...we are bald. The hair was starting to really fall out, so I was grateful that the Gman was willing to get the buzzer out.....

Here we are...his head is already done, I am trying to gather courage and lose what's left on top!

The Mohawk....as promised!

And....the end result! Now, where's my hat??

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Snow on the Ridge

Nothing like snow on the ridge leading into our Valley, to let us know that Winter is on its way!

Stepped out on the porch the other day to see this......

Yeah, this

Ugggh! I am SO not ready for Winter....

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The Positive Part About Losing Your Hair

When life gets us down....or bad things happen.....I like to try to concentrate on the positives. Something positive can Almost Always be found, within the negative things that happen in our lives. Do you know what I mean?

Like Breast Cancer.....there are positives in there, they can just be Hard to Find. Like, I really should only have to pay half price for my bras....right? I mean...I only need half of it.

I weigh less....well, not a lot less, cuz one boob just doesn't weigh that much (at least in my case) but....weighing less is a good thing.

I have learned that when your friends find out you have breast cancer, they buy you chocolate! Really, they do! After my surgery, I musta had at least 15 bars of Really Good Chocolate! And yes....I ate every last one of them!

You hear from people you haven't talked with for a long long time....friends tell friends, and they tell friends and so on and so on.....I've had cards and phone calls from high school chums....former co workers....that's a good positive!

People repeatedly tell you I Love You....always nice to hear. And that's something that doesn't get said a whole lot when life is going great, is it? One of my high school friends has called me many times over the last few months. Without fail, we end our conversations with I Love You.....I Love You Too.

All good things.....

So, ok....my hair has really started falling out. I've always had fine fine hair....and everyday I have less and less....when I comb my hair, I can't help but look at the comb afterwards.

When I run my hands thru my hair, I can't help but look at my hands and I see the hairs...more and more everyday now. I tell myself don't look, but at the same time, I can't help myself.

When the nurses told me I would lose my hair between chemo treatments 1 and 2....I thought....OK well I won't have to shave the legs anymore! I'll get a 8 or 9 month reprieve from having to do that.....there's a positive, right?

OK, here's me less than a week ago....I'm putting this pic up so I can come back and see myself with my real true original hair....

Disregard the crow's feet and laugh lines....altho I have Earned every one of them!

Back to the positives....I won't be faced with this anymore......BEDHEAD. Who out there suffers from bedhead worse than this? I freakin' scare myself and the Gman when we open our eyes in the morning.

It's always been like this....bad bad bad bedhead. I can do nothing about it, save either have a shower or put on a ballcap.

But you know.....I'm kinda gonna miss bedhead....

Goodbye Annie's Hair...it's time. I don't want to watch you swirl around and go down the drain when I'm in the shower. I don't want to keep looking at my comb to try to count the hairs.....

When it grows back, I wonder what it will look like? I hear sometimes people's hair comes back in differently than it was....thicker, thinner, darker in colour, lighter in colour....

When the Gman gets home later today, I'm gonna ask him if we can get the buzzer out....maybe have a glass of wine while doing the deed.

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